City may pay for Staten Islanders' pothole damage, if timing is right

It was Mother's Day and Rich Kelly was standing on the side of the road with hands as black as a West Virginia coal miner.

Three hours late for a holiday get-together, he had already sent the rest of his family ahead while he waited for a tow truck to cart off his car and its two flattened tires, unfixable after his encounter with a monster pothole on Todt Hill Road.

There are many potholes on Staten Island and the city may pay for damage to cars in some cases.

As bad luck would have it, the same thing had happened two months prior, when his other car had two blowouts on Clove Road, requiring two new tires.

"This is like the last straw," he recalled thinking.

Kelly spent the better part of a day putting together a packet of receipts from the garage, filling out a three-page form and hunting down a notary public to submit a claim to the city's Comptroller's Office to recoup the $720 he was out for the repairs.

The request was denied.

CITY HAS 15 DAYS
Unbeknownst to Kelly, and to most motorists in a similar situation, the city's administrative code grants the city 15 days to make repairs to a dangerous or defective condition.

The clock starts the day the problem is officially reported, and claims can't be brought against the city until the 15th day is up.

The pothole at Todt Hill Road and Helena Road had been reported three days before Kelly hit it. So when the Sunnyside resident reported the crater to 311 right away, he was told it was already on the books.

If the pothole is not reported, then the city won't pay because it never had the 15-day opportunity to fix it.

"It was a major hassle just to have it denied," Kelly said of his claim. "It's really frustrating."

Four other drivers who came through the intersection behind him that day also pulled over with tire damage, Kelly said.

"It's just not right," he said. "Suppose you didn't have $720."

Claims must be filed within 90 days of the incident, according to the comptroller's spokesman. Claim forms are available by calling 311 or at www.comptroller.nyc.gov.

On Clove Road, for example, claims related to the water main project have reached $3,969.75.

The claim is the first step in bringing legal action against the city, the spokesman explained. Each claim must be examined and investigated to determine the nature of the condition before liability can be determined.